TLAK

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 03:07 PM) Zambrano Hill Crap Garbage Junk Prior SERIOUS. LOL

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 03:06 PM) Im almost positive Garcia pitched around 14 innings in the WBC. That reason is garbage. Freddy started 2 games and pitched 7.1 innings in the WBC. Only Koji Uehara (17), Bartolo Colon (14) and Jae Seo (14) went 14 or more innings.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 08:37 AM) Great post. Quality pitching and good defense wins. Here is a question that I can't find the answer to: How many times has a team with the leading HR player or a team with the most HR won the world series? Idon't believe it would be very high. Teams with the HR king who won the WS. 14 times, none since 1980. year team HR Player 1903 BOS 13 Buck Freeman 1918 BOS 11 Babe Ruth 1923 NYA 41 Babe Ruth 1927 NYA 60 Babe Ruth 1928 NYA 54 Babe Ruth 1935 DET 36 Hank Greenberg 1936 NYA 49 Lou Gehrig 1937 NYA 46 Joe DiMaggio 1956 NYA 52 Mickey Mantle 1957 ML1 44 Hank Aaron 1961 NYA 61 Roger Maris 1966 BAL 49 Frank Robinson 1971 PIT 48 Willie Stargell 1980 PHI 48 Mike Schmidt WS winners who led baseball in HR. 19 of these, last in 1984. year team HR 1903 BOS 48 1905 NY1 39 1927 NYA 158 1928 NYA 133 1936 NYA 182 1937 NYA 174 1938 NYA 174 1939 NYA 166 1941 NYA 151 1943 NYA 100 1944 SLN 100 1954 NY1 186 1955 BRO 201 1957 ML1 199 1961 NYA 240 1968 DET 185 1976 CIN 141 1983 BAL 168 1984 DET 187

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 06:49 PM) I counted 14 bad starts last year. Thats 14 games with 4 plus earned runs which seamed to be the criteria used for Javy. I used the numbers I posted in the Daily Stats Thread. Daily Stats Thread I call a start bad at a 6 ERA, giving Javy 12, Buerlhe also had 12. Freddy only had 8. When the starter throws 6 ERA ball it is very difficult for his team will win. As a team White Sox were 12-40 in these bad starts, 26-17 when the starter was Meh (3-6), and 50-10 with Quality outings (3 or less). The more baseball I watch the more I am convinced that most games are lost by one team rather than won by the other. Basic competent baseball, which includes catching the ball, smart pitch selection and getting runners on, over and in will beat a bunch of jazzy all-stars almost every time. A sound defense and a couple of runs are of great help to the pitcher. The pitcher has to avoid dumb mistakes and keep his concentration. I think pitchers make 'errors', for example throwing a 0-2 slider to Craig f-ing Monroe, just like a fielder kicking a ball. How else to explain Javy's lousy record despite his great stuff? He finds a way to lose.

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 06:02 PM) The worst out of Garcia ...Ill buy that but not the best out of Javy. Javy has too good of stuff to be that bad. If he could pull his head out of his ass he would get back to pitching like he did for the Expos. The guy has alot of life on his fastball, a great slider, a good curve (when he doesnt hang it ) and a descent change. He still has good years ahead of him. He was 64-68 with the Expos . Then he went 14-10 with the Yankees. Then 11-15 with Arizona. Then 11-12 with The White Sox. If someone could demonstrate to me Javy's tremendous upside, which has not been evident in NINE FREAKING MAJOR LEAGUE SEASONS, I'll change my opinion. Until then I will call a dog a dog.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 05:48 PM) Absolute Bulls***, and you have no way to prove it. I assume you mean the 12 bad starts, Tony? Count 'em: Date IP ER 04/14/2006 Vazquez 6 7 05/13/2006 Vazquez 5 2/3 7 05/18/2006 Vazquez 7 5 06/03/2006 Vazquez 6 1/3 5 06/14/2006 Vazquez 6 6 06/25/2006 Vazquez 6 9 07/01/2006 Vazquez 6 5 07/19/2006 Vazquez 6 5 07/24/2006 Vazquez 6 5 07/30/2006 Vazquez 5 1/3 5 09/26/2006 Vazquez 7 6 10/01/2006 Vazquez 4 2/3 4

Last year was a down year for Freddy, by his own admision he didn't have his fast ball and pitched tired all season. But he only had 8 bad starts. Compare to Javy, who without any physical difficulty, had 12 bad starts. We saw the worst we can get from Garcia, and the best we will ever get out of Vazquez. And Freddy was head and shoulders better. Please, please, please get Javy off the team. Please.

QUOTE(sircaffey @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 08:42 PM) Just thinking of possible suitors for Uribe...I think Cinci would be a good fit. Uribe for Bray? Wow, Uribe, without Ozzie riding his tail, next to Brandon Phillups. The could win the Hot Dog world series!

The Sox are coming perilously close to violating the late Mike Royko's 3 cub rule. Garland, Gload and Ardsma, its getting scary. At least Jon was only in the minors for them so the Sox could get off on a technicallity.

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 08:11 PM) Yes there is .I heard this afternoon on espn radio .Hendry said that he and Lou would talk to Cotts about it .All Cotts has to do is develope a few more pitches and its put me in coach im ready to start . If I remember right when he came up he already had fastball, curve, slider and change up. But they shelved the slider in the bullpen. There is also a lot more money in starting than relieving so I'd expect he'd look at it would favorably. I'd really like to see Neal do well but the grubs! Maybe he can set the record for low ERA and WHIP among 20 game losers in the NL and sign a big contract elsewhere.

I hope itisso, sayitaintso . The guy is a very heady baseball player. He has a nice glove and knack of doing appropriate things at the plate.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 06:53 PM) These are the type of deals KW has done very well on. Neal was horrible vs. the top lefty batters in the AL central--which is his biggest job. I for one will give KW the benefit of the doubt. That is a very astute comment. I like Cotts but he couldn't do the one job they really needed him to do last year. I, for one, kind of overlooked that until you reminded me.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 06:12 PM) Just heard an brief interview with KW from Bruce Levine on ESPN1000.... Kenny was asked whether there would be a long-term deal for Joe Crede in the off-season. He said that the issues regarding Crede's back have been overblown by people (including myself, though, he in no way mentioned me ) but that he didn't expect a deal to be reached "and that has everything to do with his representation." He said the Sox and Boras have different views on the value of players and he doesn't expect that to change anytime soon. Isn't that illogical? If another team does pay what Boras sees as the player's value doesn't that mean his (Boras) assesment was right all along? To sign a potential FA early you need to match the upside of the player's percieved open market value or it doesn't make any sense for the player to sign. I think this is true no matter who the agent is.

So the grub are paying a Rob Mackowiak 4.3 million a year. Rob made 2.25 M last year. There is a reason guys get the utility label, in short bursts they look great but when you watch them over a period of time at any given position their warts come out. I think Jason, who sees a lot of Angels games, has made similar comments about Chone Figgins. At the press conference DeRosa said he hit .208 in September because of a mental problem, he was pressing too hard to hit .300. He's a perfect cub.

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 07:50 PM) "It appears Tampa Bay has won the bidding right for Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura. The Devil Rays reportedly outbid the Indians, San Diego and Boston for the left-handed hitter. The Yakult Swallows, Iwamura's club, are expected to announce the winning bid Wednesday or Thursday." DRays Bay So BJ Upton goes back to AAA? I saw him in August and he didn't look ready but there was a lot of hype over him.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 10:38 AM) Honestly, unless he's badly hurt, I still think that the best option as a 2nd Lefty may actaully be Logan. Cotts is nearly to Arbitration, which means his cost will start going up a lot in the next couple years, and he still has significant trade value after his 05 campaign. Logan is also several million dollars cheaper than bringing in a FA like Walker would be, money which I would rather see spent on 1 m ore Righty setup man. Having seen Logan pitch, I still think he has the stuff to make it in the big leagues, he just needs to get his head in the right place and learn how to not be scared/just throw strikes when he faces people. That's something that can be overcome. And happily, he'd only be our #2 option out of the bullpen for lefties, since we still have the guy firing the cannon from the left side. You stick another experienced righty setup man in that bullpen to go along with the 3 flamethrowers, and stick in Haeger and Logan as your last-guys out, and I think you do surprisingly well. I don't know about that Balta, his WHIP was a point higher than the one that got Cliff Politte released. They hit .424 against him and he walked nearly 8 batters per 9 IP. His September outings against Cleveland and Oakland are indellibly imprinted in my mind. The kid just could not throw his stuff in the strike zone so he either walked the hitter or tossed a batting practice cookie. He's got a lot to prove to stick in the bigs.

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 08:05 PM) Thats right ,I forgot about him .Any thoughts on who win the CF job? Juan Pierre or another veteran wouldn't surprise me. This team has it's last best chance at another ring in 2007. With Thome and Contreras's age and several big time contracts coming up (Crede, Buehrle, Dye, Garcia) the group will probably not stay together much longer, even under the best circumstances. They have to go with a guy they know can do the job, not guys they hope can do the job. Even if they go with the kids (platoon Sweeney and Anderson) out of spring training, I don't see them sticking with either if they struggle, KW will get a journeyman like a David DeJesus or Reed Johnson type who can field the position adequately and won't kill the lineup like last year. As Ozzie likes to say, 'this isn't the Arizona Fall League'.

QUOTE(R.Sweeney @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 07:56 PM) We'll find out about BA this spring training .Didnt Ozzie already say that CF will be an open try-out with Owens and Sweeney competing with BA ? Also a long shot in Luis Terrero.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Nov 13, 2006 -> 06:37 AM) I'm not sold on Roberts. Esp. not as he'll get a 3 yr deal at minimum from some team. But Pods isn't the answer either. A play for Crisp or Figgins should be ahead of staying pat with Pods. Owens isn't ready for 2007. Crisp would give you more power but less speed on the bases and OBP. Figgins certainly fits the role but like Roberts, his numbers are close to Pods so why change. I guess it comes down to what you project Scotty to do next season. If you see him on a down slope then make the move. If he can hover around his career norms then you can win with him while Owens develops.

I have a hard time buying into this board's conventional wisdom that Roberts would be an upgrade over Podsednik. Player Age G.. AB.. R.. H.. 2B. 3B HR RBI BB. SO. BA. OBP. SB. CS Podsedn 30 595 2255 354 620 111 23 25 175 219 374 .275 .342 212 65 Roberts 34 666 2204 358 594 76 42 21 181 245 278 .270 .344 207 50 Roberts is older and, coming off his best year, his career stats are pick 'em versus Pods coming off a poor year. Some of the best deals are the ones you don't make and I have a feeling this is one of them. I think they should hang on to Scott and let Ozuna, Sweeney and Owens push him for playing time. Out of the layers I named Owens is the one to watch. He has the tools to do what Scott did for the Sox last year but is too green to bank on. Should the White Sox get lucky and he matures quickly this whole thread will become irrevelent.

The table on the right tracks O for's. An O for is a game started where the player had no run, hit, rbi, bb, hbp, sh or sf. An O for indicates he did nothing discernable to help the team at the plate that day. Because the team declined in the second half I split it between pre and post All Star game break. What sticks out to me is BA, Crede and Ozuna in the second half. Dispute putting up respectable averages they were just taking up space almost 1/3 of the games. Scotty Pods had a rough year but did something positive almost every day. The table on the left tracks a pitchers outings on a day by day basis. If he achieved and ERA of 3.00 or less on that day I count it as a quality start, 3 to 6 is Meh, greater than 6 is a bad start. No big surprises here. Freddy would have looked very bad without his late surge, he picked up 4 quality starts in September. Buerhle had an career bad season and was still better than Vazquez.

Looks like Ozzie is joining the Tiburornes in some capacity. This is from their web site. We need one of our fine Spanish speakers to clarify this. Tiburones Link My high school spanish isn't up to it (Sorry Brother Mark), but this looks like a press conference for bringing the Oz in as a consultant of some form. He says he understands why they let Razor Shines go, you have to win early in that league. The White Sox will continue to have a good relationship and Corwin Malone is coming down there.

QUOTE(beautox @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 11:33 AM) a better example maybe? what about the marlins yes its the NL but they broke in Olsen, Nolasco, Johnson, even though Nolasco was eventually replaced by Sanchez. I think we could break in McCarthy and Haeger in '07 and still be just as competitive as we were in '06, if not more so. The Marlins also went 78-84 in the National League. Because they were rebuilding it was considered a success. A team going for a ring has much higher expectations.

From Rotoworld

Wow, you learn something everyday, I didn't understand the posting system before this thread.